Crash the Mode
by OnceUponASunsetDream
Summary: Dick knew there was something wrong with Bart, he knew the future couldn't be as great as the kid made it out to be and he knew that he came back to change the future.


Love Bart. Poor adorable kid. I figure that there's a good possibility he may or may not know Dick or even Damian in his time even if he doesn't, who cares? Its fanfiction, the sky of your imagination is the limit!

OOOOOO

Dick watched the boy silently. Bart Allen, boy from the future. The future they all feared and longed for. Bart had acted happy, just a 'tourist from the future', but Dick knew better. Behind the laughter in those vibrant eyes was a pain so deep that Dick could hardly believe they belonged to a child. He knew that the future he came from wasn't the happy, carefree world he liked to make them believe but he wasn't sure if he wasn't sure if he wanted to know just how bad it got.

Bart sat on the top of Mt Justice, gazing up at the stars and the moon with such an awed expression that Dick was reminded of a newly awakened Superboy seeing the sky for the first time. He sat down beside the boy and looked up at the night sky as well. "Why are you out here this late?" he asked softly, not wanting to pierce the silence of the night.

"I want to see a sunrise." Was the soft reply and Dick bowed his head, now knowing that the future must be terrible.

"How bad is it?" he asked the speedster.

Bart turned to face him and searched his eyes for a moment. "You know." he said simply and Dick nodded. "I shouldn't tell you." Bart said eventually.

"Please." Dick whispered.

Bart looked at him again for a long, long moment and then he smiled mirthlessly. "I never thought I'd hear you beg." he said slowly.

"You know me in the future?" Dick asked and Bart nodded.

"Yeah. You and Wally and Barbara were like the parents I don't remember." Dick drew in a sharp breath and Bart's smile became more real as he gazed up at the moon again. "My mother died giving birth to my little sister and they both died. My father died two years later, killed in battle. I was four. His face is blurred, I can't remember his face anymore. Barry died in the fight against Neutron and I never met Iris. I don't know what happened to the Garrick's."

Bart's eyes shone with tears and Dick placed an arm around his shoulders in what he hoped was a comforting manner. "Aunt Dawn took me in after that but she became more...reckless. She wasn't really able to care for a four year old so Wally took me. He and his wife had two children, both of whom were older than me and they had already begun helping in the fight. Linda, Wally's wife, had been killed before I was born so most of the time it was just us two. He helped me with my speed and he introduced me to you and your brothers.

"What you have to understand is that I shouldn't even be telling you all of this but I think...you need to know. You are Batman in my time, I don't know what happened to Bruce but all I know is that you are Batman and a boy named Damian is your Robin. He's my best friend, a bit prickly and emotionally challenged, but stubbornly loyal."

"I look forward to meeting him." Dick murmured, rubbing Bart's arm as the boy allowed a few tears to fall.

They sat in silence for a moment before Bart spoke again. "I've never seen stars before. Never seen the moon. Never seen the sun. One of the few things I remember about my father is asking him what the sun was and he told me all about it, how it warmed you all the way through to your bones and if you stayed out too long you would get sunburn. He said he wished I knew what sunburn felt like.

"The skies are always grey and ash falls all day like rain. Superheroes are hunted down and captured, subjected to brutal tests and occasionally publically executed. Almost everyone is a slave, forced to follow orders and scavenge scraps. The future is hell and I need to change it. I need to crash the mode." he sounded to desperate, so scared and so alone that Dick couldn't resist pulling the boy into a hug and stroking his back comfortingly.

"We'll change the future, Bart. I promise. We'll crash the mode." And he would be damned if he didn't. This boy in his arms was terrified of failing, of the future he had grown up in, of all the people who died before their time, the children who had never seen the sun or the blue sky or the moon or the stars. He would help Bart crash the mode and he would live to see a future bright and happy. No matter what.


End file.
